I keep an extensive art journal. When I find a quote about art that strikes a chord in me, I keep it. I keep images that speak to me. Most of my journal is electronic instead of physical these days. What I have discovered, however, is that one must be careful not to only look at things that are presented to them. That may not readily make sense...

What I am getting at is that when I used to keep a paper journal, I was always finding items in unexpected places--magazines, daily walks, the radio, conversations with actual humans, etc. I have to remind myself to continue to log these non-electronic items into my journal. In other words, I must not rely too heavily on Pinterest and Facebook to provide me with ideas!

The painting here is one I completed several years ago. I was teaching photography at the time and one of my students turned in a photo of her brothers and sisters jumping on the trampoline in their back yard. It appealed to me on many levels, so I painted it quite large, about six feet tall.

The Weeping Woman by Picasso

Picasso said,"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary." I can definitely agree with that idea. When I go back and look at my old paintings, I can readily remember where I was, who I was with, what music I was listening to, what the weather was like, what I was thinking, and so on, while I was creating a piece.

"Painting seems like some kind of peculiar miracle that I need to have again and again."--Philip Guston

My visual wandering today led me to this quote by Phillip Guston. So I looked him up to see what kind of artist he was. The painting here is quite representative of his work. It is titled, "Painter in Bed."

Many of Guston's work are in this limited color palette. I am always intrigued when a painter travels down the same path again and again this way.

"Painting is by nature a luminous language."--Robert Delaunay

I also explored some work by Robert Delaunay today. I was amazed at how many different styles he employed in his paintings! The slide show above has a few interesting examples.

Today I will close with a slideshow of some of my older dot paintings.